Father O'Malley Series

When respected Arapaho tribal chairman Harvey Castle is found murdered on Wyoming's Wind River Reservation all evidence points to his nephew as the killer. Recovering alcoholic Father John O'Malley, exiled to an Indian mission, and tribal attorney Vicky Holden believe in the nephew's innocence and set out to prove it. The trail they follow leads into Arapaho homes and community centers and the fraud infested world of Indian oil and land deals. Eventually it leads to the past and the horrendous crimes committed then.

The Wind River Reservation has agreed to use their land for a nuclear waste storage site, in return for new jobs and millions in revenue. But Vicky Holden knows the Araphoe tribe will be swindled. Someone wants to keep Vicky quiet, and anyone else who stands in their way. After one man is murdered, and two attempts are made on Vicky's life, she knows she is involved in a crime much bigger than she imagined. Vicky looks to her only true ally: Father John O'Malley. Together they begin a frenzied search through false promises and misguided dreams to find the truth.

What reason would anyone have to kill an aging elderly priest? Unless the reason dates back to 1964 when Father Joseph Keenan left his post. The same year dozens of Arapaho newborns had died from contaminated water. It was also the year Hollywood star Sharon David was born, perhaps to one of those grieving families. When the adopted celebrity shows up in Vicky Holden’s office with clues suggesting she was born in the area it’s clear that the glamorous actress is a “lost bird.” And there may be a flock behind her along with an ages old cover up...

A museum is required by law to return a rare one-of-a-kind pictorial book - the only eye-witness account of Arapaho history on the plains. The book is worth millions to dealers who razor out pages and sell them one by one. But when the museum says they never had the book, Vicky Holden suspects foul play. Then she learns that an Arapaho student mysteriously died while researching the ledger. Vicky and Father John must begin a deadly search for the sacred treasure and the killer. An irreplaceable piece of Arapaho history could be lost forever.

Father John O'Malley discovers a corpse lying in a ditch beside the highway, but when he returns with the police, it is gone. The Arapahos of the Wind River Reservation speak of ghost walkers - tormented souls caught between the earth and the spirit world, who are capable of anything. Then within days, a young man disappears from the reservation without a trace. A young woman is found brutally murdered. As Father John and Arapaho lawyer Vicky Holden investigate these crimes, someone - or something - begins to follow them. They must stop a killer, explain the inexplicable, and put a ghost to rest.

Because she believes that her feelings for Father John O’Malley, a Jesuit priest, are inappropriate, Vickie Holden leaves her home on the Wind River Reservation and takes a job in Denver. She receives a call from Vince Lewis, V. P. for Balder Industries, who has information to give her regarding the reservation. Vince is killed by a hit and run driver before he can give Vickie the information. Back on the reservation, Father John is aware of another man who he believes is murdered. What is it about the Wind River Reservation that killers are trying to keep secret?

A historian arrives in Wind River country convinced that the memoirs of 19th century Shoshone heroine Sacajawea are stashed somewhere on the Wind River reservation. She believes that Sacajawea survived the Lewis and Clark expedition and returned to the Shoshones where she lived out her life. And when the historian turns up missing, Father John O’Malley and Wind River attorney Vickie Holden become convinced that, if the memoirs truly do exist, then  someone has stolen the memoirs and may have dispatched the historian, permanently.

James “Orlando” Sherwood has resurrected the old Shadow Dance religion, having his followers dance for days at a time for the promise of an Indian paradise. For Orlando and his followers, nothing must delay the coming of the New World-not even the investigation of Ben Holden's death. It has been four months since lawyer Vicky Holden left her high-powered job in a legal firm to return to her home on the Wind River Reservation. She agreed to meet her abusive ex-husband Ben at a local restaurant, but he soon loses his temper, makes a scene, and walks out. A mortified Vicky later learns Ben is murdered. Arapaho attorney Vicky Holden and her friend, Father John O'Malley, believe that Orlando has more to do with it than he lets on. But to get the proof they need, they will have to learn to dance to his music....

When the body of a white man is recovered from a shallow grave in one of the most troubled corners of the Wind River Reservation, Father John O’Malley knows that if the murderer isn’t caught quickly, this tragedy will only be the beginning. The victim’s widow is already out for revenge. And the one person Father John believes could lead him to the killer is a terrified fifteen-year-old girl running for her life. In the meantime, Father John’s old friend Vicky Holden has just been hired as in-house counsel at the newly opened Great Plains Casino. But trouble is brewing, as an angry group of protesters known as the Rangers is bent on proving the casino is a house of evil...and shutting it down for good. And there are some who believe that the group’s shadowy leader, Captain Jack Monroe, is responsible for killing the man found at the reservation, and that it is only a matter of time before he will kill again. As tensions rise, the two work feverishly to sort out the story. But when Vicky stumbles across some troubling evidence, she is suddenly caught in a dangerous game...with her own life at stake.

This cryptic message was clearly meant for Father O’ Malley. The unemotional voice on the answering machine was speaking of revenge against old enemies, and wanted O’Malley to visit the site of the 1874 Bates Battle where Captain Bate’s cavalry, lead by Shoshone warriors massacred nearly everyone living on an Arapaho tribal grounds. Now, someone has left three dead Shoshones on the battlefield, positioned to mimic the bodies of those Arapahos killed in the historic slaughter. Frankie Montana, attorney Vicky Holden’s latest client, is a frequent guest of the reservation’s holding cells, and after a recent heated encounter with the three dead men, is the number one suspect in their deaths. Despite his faults, Vicky doesn’t believe he is capable of murder. Instead, she suspects that someone is trying to stir up a war between the Arapaho and Shoshone people, ripping open the still painful wounds of the past...the question is why?

In 1907, photographer Edward S. Curtis arrived at the Wind River Reservation, hoping to document the Arapaho way of life before it vanished altogether. To preserve the legacy of warriors in battle, Curtis staged an attack on a village, planning to capture it on film. But it became all too real when the daughter of the tribe’s chief was found murdered, and her killer was never identified. Now, Curtis’s photographs are on display at the museum of St. Francis Mission on the reservation, and history seems doomed to repeat itself. A descendant of the tribal chief who appeared in Curtis’s pictures has been shot to death, and the museum’s curator has disappeared. The two incidents may be linked to the near century-old murder. Soon, Arapaho attorney Vicky Holden and Father John O’Malley will discover an even more disturbing connection to present-day events.

The skeleton of a young woman is discovered in a dry gully on the Wind River Reservation. Remnants of a long, black braid are mixed with the bones. There is a bullet hole in the skull. Forensics determine the woman was shot-to-death in 1973. 1973, the year of AIM. The American Indian Movement had occupied the town of Wounded Knee on the Pine Ridge Reservation. Afterward, Indians under federal indictment had gone into hiding on other reservations, including Wind River. A year of fear and violence, when no one could be trusted, when anyone might be an FBI snitch. Arapaho attorney Vicky Holden and Father John O'Malley are determined to find the identity of the forgotten woman and see that she is laid to rest in the traditional Arapaho Way. Their search leads them into the 1970s and the dark underbelly of an organization that had spoken out on behalf of Indian rights. They soon run into a wall of silence. No one wants to talk about a time when many crimes, including murder, went unsolved. No one wants to admit the part they may have played, or the guilt they may still carry. No one wants to remember a young woman accused of being a snitch. As the life and death of the woman begin to come into view, Vicky and Father John realize that the killer who has gotten away with murder for more than thirty years is still on the reservation and that they are about to be his next victims.